boston training: week 7

i feel like i have a ton to talk about and nothing to talk about. kinda weird (but of course ill drag this blog on and on im sure. enjoy). i had a great week of training and the days just keep coming and going. get up, run, work, sleep (kinda, not really), repeat. eat a lot. run a lot. coffee. chocolate coconut almonds. jeopardy. you know how it goes.

i took my rest day on thursday this week instead of friday, which set me up for a tough weekend once again, but the way my life schedule fell it made sense and i just went with it. related: the weather was better. obviously you should always plan your schedule around the weather (also related: my weather app is almost far enough out for april 18th! so accurate. #thingsbffhates). and god bless grandparents... they came down and i was able to go to the track on friday for my 1600m repeats! we had a huge melt of all the snow over the past week and the track was clear. it was quite cold, but i decided to suck it up (soooooo happy i did). it was 25 degrees when i started, 28 when i finished... actually quite gorgeous weather (minus the wind). it wasnt quite shorts weather, but i got hot and shed layer rather quickly. can i order up 28 degrees (no wind, snow or rain) for the race? just kidding. kinda.

the evolution of a track speed workout in february in maine #shedallthelayers

we headed north friday afternoon to stay with tys parents for the weekend, as we had a wedding to go to on saturday. the gym up there had treadmills that were less than desirable, (side note- the local gym had a day pass for $10 which was slightly higher than reasonable in my eyes, used to be $7 at places but whatever... but i had called planet fitness in a nearby town... $20! to run 6 miles. no. thanks. also: w.t.a.f?!) ... anyway the treadmill... not great. i really felt like my stride was weird, the belt was hard (almost painful to run on), and i almost got off at 2 miles and was gonna hop on the bike, but the belt seemed to soften as it warmed up and i got 6 recovery miles in with some strength and stretching after. for $10, of course.

hen truly seems to be loving staying awake all day recently, which drives mama nuts sometimes (especially when he wakes up so early in the morning!)... and this made for an interesting situation bringing him to the wedding saturday afternoon. hes usually not too fussy without a nap, but a switch goes off when hes ready for bed and we didnt know when that was going to happen. luckily it was after dinner. dads phone kept him occupied during the ceremony (with a few visits out to the side room when he was wanting to talk to dad about things), and then he spent dinner running around giving everyone high fives and telling the bride she had a "pretty dress".

i actually DO own clothes that isnt oiselle or sweatpants

but i also find ALL the dresses with pockets... for snacks. and bud lights. obviously.

back seat shenanigans

cheers!

hen finally got to the point where the tired set in... running around on the dance floor (in circles) with a few other kids a little older than him. after two falls, colliding with the other kids, one with his head hitting the floor (and so many tears), it was definitely time to go. he crashed when we got home (he might be the only kid in the history of forever that never (yes, never) falls asleep in the car. ugh). hes such a good kid though and seemed to have so much fun at the wedding (everyone loved his light up paw patrol shoes on the dance floor!)

when hen and i got back home sunday, the bff brought her son over to play with henry so that i could run outside (thank you thank you thank you!!). it was so nice out and my long sleeve shirt was quickly shed. this weather can stay please and thanks (and also, maybe rather, would like to order up 50 degrees for the race. more people might like that temp over 28 degrees). i was a little stiff starting off and worried about the run on the treadmill the day before, but i loosened up quickly and settled in for the mp miles. 

nothing to write home about really with the last two runs of the week... 9 miles on monday before work, 10 miles today on a stupid hilly route (and stupid cold weather). i feel like im just on auto pilot or something, locking into pace and just going with it.

yay 22! i mean brrrrrr. but still, awesome.

barf.

fun to see this on a training run

solid.

and then i went to the chiropractor... holy. tight. ouch. needed that. got some stretches and ways to roll tight soas(?) something or other. i should likely stretch more. and by more i mean... stretch. period. yoga, not my thing. and neither is flexibility.

week 7

3x1600- (goal pace 6:49-7:09)- 6:51, 6:54, 6:53 (compared to last 1600s on the treadmill- 7:10, 7:02, 6:56). very happy with this run, especially since i was outside on the track and had to push myself to keep that pace vs. plugging it in on the treadmill. hey, these legs still have some speed in them, who knew?! (now that speed work is over haha, go figure)

8 @MP- (goal pace 7:48-8:01)- 7:53, 7:47, 7:54, 7:48, 7:48, 7:50, 7:47, 7:50. was very happy with this run, again outside and having to push myself on the road vs the treadmill (dont get me wrong, i love the treadmill and all, but yay outside! in february!)

long run- (goal pace 8:20-8:42) average pace 8:26. really strong run on a tough hilly route. all three of these goal runs for the week were outside, which is always a huge boost for me mentally.

no new tunes this week. same old, same old. sent back the odyssey 2s (sad) and ordered old odyssey 1s... that have pink laces (happy).

i also ordered a flip belt last week and it came just in time to try it out on this weeks mp run and long run. i dont know why i asked the smallest person i know what size she had (duh, the smallest they have), but i ended up going with a size small... it. is. awesome! (i wont lie... i looked around for about 30 seconds for my phone so i could take a pic of my flip belt... with my phone in it. yeah, blonde. wont deny that). it sits nicely on my hips and doesnt move one teeny tiny bit. my back got kinda sore with my phone in the back when running on sunday, so i moved the phone to the front and that worked fine. im so happy this hopefully will work out, since we basically can bring absolutely nothing to hopkinton with us. how would i express all the feelings to bff without my phone?! they come in lots of fun cool colors, but of course i got black. i bet you thought i would have gotten hot pink. i really dont know why i didnt actually. weird. but it has lots of room for phone and keys and snacks and who knows what other fun treasures i might put in there for the 26.2 mile journey.

i also received my first stitch fix! super fun (although i needed to adjust my sizes for the next time around). i felt i needed to change up my closet from hoodies and sweatpants and im no good at style. seriously, i need help.

they also sent a cute pair of skinny jeans and a sweater cardigan (too big)... i ended up only keeping the striped gray shirt (if you couldnt tell from the facial expressions). basically you pay a $20 styling fee and fill out your style profile, make a pinterest page so your stylist can really get to know what you like and want, and then they send you 5 items at your leisure (you pick when you want the package to arrive and how often... you also pick price range of items). you decide what you want and dont want, and its free shipping for the returns. keep any of the items and your $20 goes towards that, and if you keep all 5 items you get a 25% discount! if you choose not to keep any of the items you lose your $20 styling fee, but i think thats pretty rare. i didnt have any experience with this, but you can email your stylist and try to get a different size in a product if they have it. theres also a facebook page for stitch fix buy, sell & trade, incase you keep things and change your mind later. im excited to see what comes next! try it out here if you want, use this link for my referral and ill get a sweet discount hehe (all opinions are my own, stitch fix didnt ask me to write about them or anything. i just think its cool).

so yeah. boston... week 7... done. yay! 55 days!